


Counterpoint

by loserswin2



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 11:20:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6751858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loserswin2/pseuds/loserswin2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Rachel Berry's future memoir (working title: It's a Metaphor), she's now going to have to include a chapter titled: "How I Became a Mother at 16." It goes hand-in-hand with the chapter that's constantly undergoing revisions titled: "My Complicated Relationship with Noah Puckerman." Season 1 AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.

A/N: So I'm like 23984739274 years late to the Puckleberry game. I remember watching the first season and loving that pairing so I've been reading a bunch of PR fanfic for the past few weeks. This story has been floating around in my head for a bit so I thought it would be good time to start writing again. The story is mostly outlined though there are a few blank spots that I'm having a bit of trouble filling so if there are any suggestions, I can probably include them. 

* * *

Rachel Berry is going to be a star.

She knows this. She’s known it since the first time she watched _West Side Story_ during the monthly Berry Family Musical Spectacular and she heard Tony sing of his love for Maria, of how “suddenly that name will never be the same to me.” Her leading man will sing “Maria (The Rachel Berry version)” to her and they’ll conquer Broadway together. She won’t find her leading man in Lima and romance isn’t exactly on the top of her priorities—getting a Tony award is more important than finding her Tony—so she does everything she can to make it to New York. Even if it means getting Sandy Ryerson fired and waiting for Principal Figgins to find a teacher that’s more competent. Her dads won’t let her transfer to Carmel for some strange reason so she’ll have to make due with whatever paltry extracurricular musical activities that McKinley has to offer.

So when she sees the sign-up sheet for glee club and that it’s now going to be run by Will Schuester, the Spanish teacher, she doesn’t hesitate to sign up. She whips out her sheet of star stickers and places a star after her name. Seeing that star after her name reminds her of her goal and gives her hope, which is something she needs. Especially when—

_Splash_

She hears the students in the hallway laugh as she’s once again doused with a cherry slushie. She turns around, even though she already knows who the culprit is. She spots the familiar mohawk as he walks away from her, never looking back to see if the slushie hit its mark. He doesn’t need to, the laughter is enough to know he got her. She quickly grabs her things and heads to the nearest restroom to clean up and think about her relationship with Noah “Puck” Puckerman.

Lima is a small town with an even smaller Jewish population so it’s safe to say that she’s known Puck since they were in diapers. Her dads, Leroy and Hiram, were one of the few people who didn’t excessively gossip whenever it was known that Eli Puckerman left to go on his “trips” and her dads and Aviva Puckerman became fast friends. Naturally, it meant their children were supposed to become fast friends too.

And they were, for a while. Noah had been her best friend growing up and maybe, a few times, she entertained the idea of him being the love of her life and they would get married. But then seventh grade came and Puck appeared. He started hanging out with Quinn Fabray and Santana Lopez and their crowd. Then in eighth grade, he stopped acknowledging her at school. The final nail in the coffin that contained their friendship was when he threw a grape slushie in her face on the first day of high school. Life would be so much easier if that was the story of how their friendship lived and died. Instead, it just got more complicated.

Because even though they stopped being friends, their parents didn’t know that. If anything, their parents just knew that they weren’t as close as they used to be. During the rare Berry-Puckerman family dinners, the two would be civil to each other and throw out inside jokes that had their parents believing everything was all right between the two.

And just to add on to the “our-parents-still-think-we’re-best-buddies” thing that they have, they also make out whenever they’re left alone together. She doesn’t know why, it just happens. It first happened in Puck’s room during his bar mitzvah and when it happened again at Rachel’s bat mitzvah, she didn’t think anything of it because puberty just made everything confusing. But it continued to happen, and it’s like the two of them can’t be left alone together without it ending in a hot and heavy make out session.

And a few weeks ago during the annual JCC “Get Ready for School” event, she let him get to third base. She helped him out as well and the way he said her name made her want things she hasn’t wanted in years. But then he threw a slushie in her face when the school year started and she’s reminded of the way things are and the rules they follow.

The bell rings to signify that class will be starting soon. She packs up her things and lingers on her sheet of star stickers, the slushie having rendered half of them useless.

She throws the sheet away.

As she walks back into the hallway, back into the place where she is known as a freak because of her ambition, she knows these two things about herself:

1) Rachel Berry is going to be a star.

2) She wants everything too much.

Even when she knows there are some things she’s never going to get.

* * *

“Hey, Berry.”

She tenses. Puck has used this tactic before. He’ll call out her name and when she turns, it’s slushie city for her. But then she remembers that she’s already been hit with a slushy today, courtesy of Karofsky. When she saw him in their English class after lunch, she noticed he had a black eye, probably an unfortunate result of the play-fighting she assumes Neanderthals like him like to engage in. She knows it’s an unspoken rule that she only get slushied once per day. It’s the nicest thing the popular students have ever done for her.

She hesitantly turns around and eyes Puck with a bit of caution.

“What do you want?”

“I need a favor.”

She gestures for him to continue.

“I didn’t do so hot on the pop quiz in English and Mrs. Smith said I could make up the points if I wrote a short essay on something. I was hoping you could help me out.”

She swiftly answers, “No.”

“Why not? Friends help each other out.” He actually looks angry at her denial to help him and she tries hard not to laugh when he says that they’re friends. She doesn’t know if there’s a word that’s able to describe what they are to each other. It’s like she’s on a tightrope and one step will make her land on either enemy, friend, or secret lover (she knows Puck would probably use the term “make out buddy” but that’s not a suitable term for an ingénue like her).

“We’re not friends.” He opens his mouth to retort but Rachel won’t let him. “I’m not friends with Puck. I’m friends with Noah.”

The hallway is quiet, as the only ones left in school are there for the glee club tryouts. She doesn’t know why Puck is there because she knows that football practice is starting soon.

“I miss him,” she quietly admits out loud for the first time since he began pulling away from her in seventh grade.

He says her name, “Rachel,” in that tone that reminds her of stolen moments and she knows that she has one foot off the tightrope and she’s terrified about which label she’ll fall in, because she actually doesn’t like any of them.

She steps away from him and says, “I-I’m sorry. I know the rules.” There are so many unspoken rules between the two of them that she’s surprised a rule-breaker like him actually follows them. “I have to go.” She quickly walks away from him and heads to the auditorium for her audition.

She’s back on that tightrope, with both feet planted firmly on a rope she knows will tear soon.

She doesn’t hear him follow her and she doesn’t know if she’s sad or grateful. They’re both good at pretending.

She wonders who’s better.

* * *

He should be at practice but what’s the point when their football team sucks. Instead, he’s sitting on the floor near the backstage exit for the auditorium. He’s pretty sure anyone auditioning for that joke of a club is using the front exit so he isn’t scared that anyone will catch him here.

He doesn’t hear Rachel yet so he tunes whoever is currently singing out and thinks about what just happened with Rachel and her statement about how she’s not friends with Puck but she is with Noah. She’s not wrong. If being Puck means she stays away from him and forgets about him when she makes it to New York, then he’s doing something right. But then he thinks back about the other thing she said.

_“I miss him.”_

What was he supposed to say to that? Because of course he misses her. Once you meet Rachel Berry, she finds a way to get under your skin and no matter how hard you try, she’ll never leave. He started trying in seventh grade and he still can’t shake her. Though that’s partially his fault.

It’s just, when she came to his bar mitzvah and went to his room to give him his present (a set of guitar strings and a few guitar picks), he kind of forgot that he was trying to not be her friend anymore. Her hair was in these adorable braided pigtails and she had on this dark green dress and the light coming in through his bedroom window kind of illuminated her or something. She was just so, so pretty. So he kissed her.

Once his party was over, he started getting angry at himself because now he’s giving off mixed signals because he really, really wants to kiss her again but knows that being around him isn’t going to do her any good, just like that kid said. And then at her bat mitzvah, he kissed her again. Soon, they just get into this cycle of kissing whenever they’re alone and him being an asshole to her in public. He thought the slushies would put an end to the kissing. He used to look at her face after he slushied her too, hoping that her sad face would like make him stop trying to kiss her but of course his mouth just automatically seeks hers whenever they get close together.

And after this past summer, he can’t even look at her face when he slushies her. They’ve been doing their secret make out thing for a while now and he’s proud to say he’s never pushed her for anything more. But one day she came by to drop off his sister, Hannah, from dance class and somehow ended up on top of him grinding in his bed. He’s not gonna lie, it was hot as fuck even when he thought he was done with high school girls that summer and started sexing up all the cougars from his pool cleaning business. He was also pretty surprised when she let him finger her at the back to school thing at the JCC. He would have made a mess in his pants if she hadn’t helped him out. Of course the lustful haze that encounter brought out disappeared once he got home and he remembered why he’s been trying so hard to keep Rachel away. So when school started back up, he threw a slushie in Rachel’s face and when Santana suggested they fuck each other on the regular, he didn’t exactly say no.

He can hear Rachel get ready for her audition and he sits up a little straighter. He’s always loved her singing and it’s been a while since he last heard her sing.

_On my own_

_Pretending he’s beside me_

_All alone_

_I walk with him till morning_

_Without him_

_I feel his arms around me_

_And when I lose my way I close my eyes_

_And he has found me_

His insides do a weird clenching thing.

Because he’s known Rachel for a long time, he knows exactly what her go-to audition song is. And this isn’t it.

He closes his eyes and lets her singing voice wash over him as he remembers every noise she made as he made her come undone. He remembers how she sighed when it was over. He remembers how she laid her head on his chest, as if she was listening for his heartbeat to commit to memory. But most of all, he remembers how right she felt in his arms.

He gets up to head back to practice. Tanaka will chew him out for it but he doesn’t really care.

_I love him_

_I love him_

_I love him_

_But only on my own_

Rachel loves that symbolism shit and he honestly doesn’t want to think about what her singing this song means.

* * *

_Just a small town girl_

_Living’ in a lonely world_

_She took the midnight train goin’ anywhere_

_Just a city boy_

_Born and raised in south Detroit_

_He took the midnight train goin’ anywhere_

It’s been a weird week. Mainly because of what Finn has been doing in Glee club. He doesn’t understand why Finn would want to join such a lame club when he’s the quarterback. He should be focusing on being a high school stud. But he looks at Finn and Rachel singing their hearts out to each other on stage and he kind of understands why Finn would want to stay in Glee. Rachel has this huge smile on her face that she only gets when she’s performing and it’s kind of contagious. She’s directing that huge smile at Finn and his fists clench.

He doesn’t have any right to be jealous. Rachel isn’t his and Finn has a girlfriend. But he notices the looks that Finn has been giving Rachel lately and he recognizes the looks that Rachel has been giving Finn. Because she used to look at him like that. It used to make him feel like he could do anything.

_“I miss him.”_

And right now, looking at the members of Glee club celebrating new chances, he realizes that he really wants that feeling back. They can’t go back to what they used to be, but maybe they can move forward from here and be something…new.

He walk outs and begins humming the song he just heard the Glee club sing.

_Don’t stop believin’_

_Hold on to the feelin’_

He knows he’s done a lot of awful shit and it will take a lot to be forgiven. But he knows what his first step is going to be.

* * *

Rachel skips out of the auditorium. Glee club is back on and she may have found her leading man in Finn Hudson. She pushes aside the voice in her head that tells her that Finn has a girlfriend.

She opens her locker and a note flutters down to the floor. She picks it up but her eyes are drawn to the sheet of star stickers left in her locker. There’s a post-it note and it reads: “to make up for the ones I ruined.” She remembers when she was younger, and a boy with hazel eyes gave her a sheet of star stickers, not knowing how much they would come to mean to her.

She opens the note in her hand, having an idea of who the note is from, and smiles wide.

“He misses you too.”

She grabs her things and skips out of the school. Her smile never falters.

Maybe she can have everything after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is my version of the episode "Showmance."

She’s at her locker when she can see, out of the corner of her eye, Puck stroll up with a grape slushie in his hand. Her heart falls. Maybe she read too much into his note and nothing’s changed at all. As he gets closer to her, she squeezes her eyes shut, in preparation for the cold drink that’s sure to be on her face. When nothing happens, she hesitantly opens her eyes. He’s standing there with the slushie still in his hand. She thinks she imagines the hurt look in his eyes because it quickly goes away. He puts the slushie in her hand and she stares at it, then back at him, and doesn’t know what to say.

“I got you grape,” he nonchalantly says, like this isn’t an abnormal thing for him to do, “I know that’s your favorite ‘cause the last time I threw one in your face, you licked your lips before going to clean yourself off.” He takes the straw from behind his ear and puts it in her free hand.

If she didn’t know Puck so well, she would think this was the beginning of a prank. But she knows that this is his way of trying to rebuild their friendship.

“T-thank you.” She takes a sip from the slushie. She’s not that fond of the drink, for obvious reasons, but she can appreciate a cold drink when the weather still feels like summer. She’s also taking a sip because she doesn’t really know what else to say in this situation. Thankfully, Puck starts speaking.

“You know, I wasn’t really kidding about asking for help. I really do need to pick a book to write a short paper on for class.” He rubs the back of his head with his hand. He’s not really looking at her.

She continues to slowly sip her drink as she attempts to formulate a response. She’s hesitant to accept this olive branch, but she’s always believed that people deserve a second chance. She’ll go about this slowly, in the hopes that maybe a slow pace will help them rebuild their friendship.

“Why don’t we meet in the library during free period and see if we can find a short novel for you to use for your essay?”

“Sure.”

She nods and is about to head to her class when Puck’s hand on her arm stops her.

“Thanks.”

“It’s no problem, Noah.”

He gives her a small grin and as she walks away, she realizes that this is the first time she’s called him “Noah” at school since their friendship began to falter.

* * *

Finn’s really lucky that he’s Puck’s best friend because that is the only explanation as to why Puck is currently sitting in a classroom waiting for the Celibacy Club to begin. Bored out of his mind, he looks around the room and sees who else is in the club. Quinn, Santana, and Brittany are in one corner, supervising a few football players who are tasked with blowing up balloons for some strange reason. He sees a few other Cheerios and jocks scattered about the room. Jacob Ben-Isreal, a.k.a the creepiest kid he’s ever had the pleasure of knowing, is here as well. He spots Rachel, who is desperately trying to ignore the creepy stare Jacob is giving her while she is also trying to hold a conversation with Finn since Quinn isn’t paying attention.

He and Rachel have been texting ever since he offered that slushie. She’s keeping him at arms-length, which he kind of understands since just last week he was throwing slushies in her face. They’ll greet each other in the hallway and text each other random things, but they haven’t reached the level of ease with each other that they had when they were younger. He has a feeling it’s getting better because yesterday she started bitching about this show she currently hates but everyone loves and it just reminded him of when they were younger and she would rant about random things just to practice words she learned from reading her dad’s legal documents. He always thought her rants were adorable because she would always end them with a stomp and a little pout. He wonders if she still does that.

Quinn makes everyone pair up and do this exercise where their hips are separated by a balloon and they have to make sure it doesn’t pop. He can see Jacob head towards Rachel and that’s definitely not gonna happen. So he quickly strides over to where they are and forces Jacob toward Santana, who he assumes he’s supposed to partner with, but she’s been such a bitch lately because Quinn’s been ultra bitchy ever since Finn joined Glee and started spending time with Rachel. She said something about solidarity but he couldn’t really care.

“Back off Jewfro. I got Berry.” He grabs the balloon from Rachel and puts it between them. He tries really hard not to think about how there’s a flimsy balloon separating their hips. She just looks at him like she knows he’s going to do everything he can to pop the balloon.

And she’s right.

He starts really grinding into the balloon, but nothing’s really happening so he grinds even harder. He’d imagine if Santana was his partner, she’d be yelling at him to stop doing something so idiotic, but when he glances at Rachel, he can see she’s trying not to laugh. The grin on his face becomes more genuine and he continues grinding until they both hear a “pop.” They both look down and see that it’s not their balloon that popped.

“Finn!” They hear Quinn cry out and whip their heads to where the Golden Couple are standing.

“I-I’m sorry!”

Quinn starts really laying into Finn and Puck rolls his eyes, knowing this is going to go on for a while.

“This is stupid.” He turns to see Rachel who’s standing with both hands on her hips, a sign that a Rachel Berry rant is about to begin.

“Excuse me, Man Hands. No one asked you. Why are you even here?” Quinn trains her wrath at Rachel and Puck wisely takes a few steps back. He’s close enough to separate them if there’s a cat fight but far enough that his junk is safe from harm.

Rachel starts ranting about the stupidity of the club and spouting off statistics but Puck is too busy staring at her lips. They look really plump today.

He comes back to reality when he hears Rachel say, “Girls want sex just as much as boys do.” She leaves the room and the entire room is reeling from the fact that Rachel Berry just told off the Chastity Queen.

He wonders about who Rachel might want to have sex with. He doesn’t dare look at Finn because his fist might end up in Finn’s face.

At least he doesn’t have to wonder if Rachel still does the pout and stomp.

* * *

He just got his paper back from Mrs. Smith, who is shocked he even did the extra work to make up for his quiz. It’s only a B- but he has a feeling that Rachel will be proud of him. He hasn’t talked to her much since the assembly where the Glee club performed “Push It” and basically got the entire school horny. There was a part of him that was angry at the choreography between Rachel and Finn until he decided to just focus on Rachel and imagine she was performing for him. He got pretty hard at that so he stayed seated when everyone gave the club a standing ovation after the performance. He teased her about the song choice afterwards and she told him about their punishment. They now have to choose from an approved list of songs, but that performance was so worth it. She doesn’t agree but whatever.

He comes across Quinn at her locker. She’s constantly looking at her phone. He heard that her, Santana, and Brittany have joined Glee to spy for Sylvester but he’s pretty sure that Quinn joined to make sure Rachel didn’t poach Finn from her.

“Hey, Quinn. What are you still doing here?” There aren’t any practices today and the school is almost empty.

“Have you seen Finn? We were supposed to meet.”

He shakes his head. “Nope. Haven’t seen him.”

“Great.” Quinn shoves a book in her locker. “He’s probably with RuPaul.”

He wants to say something to Quinn about the awful nicknames she has for Rachel, but he figures it’ll look suspicious if he shows he cares for Rachel. She might, like, start attacking Rachel more or something and he doesn’t want that for Rachel. So he keeps his mouth shut.

“Since he’s not here, did you want to hang out or something?”

She stops rearranging the contents of her locker to look at him. “Oh Puck. I’m with Finn.” She says it like she’s explaining something to a small child.

“I know that.” He’s stupid, but he’s not that stupid. “I was just wondering—“

“We may flirt every once in a while but Finn and I belong together. He’s the quarterback and you’re…” She looks at him like he’s the gum under her shoe. “…A Lima Loser.”

He clenches his fists and reminds himself that he can’t hit a girl. He knows he’s a Lima Loser. It’s why he tried to stay away from Rachel. He didn’t want to bring her down. But to be called that by someone else, someone he once thought he wanted, just gets him angry.

“You know what, Quinn.” He says in a low voice. “I was just trying to be nice, something you clearly don’t understand. Don’t come crying to me when Rachel takes Finn away from a bitch like you.” He angrily walks away from her before he can say anything more hurtful. She’ll cry to Finn about it and Finn will probably punch him.

He’s near the auditorium when he hears footsteps. He looks up. It’s Finn. Great.

“Finn!”

Finn looks at him. He looks guilty. “Sorry, Puck. I-I gotta go.” He briskly walks away from Puck.

Puck stares after his friend and wonders what makes Finn better than him.

He peeks into the auditorium and notices the many fairy lights, the picnic blanket, and Rachel, with her face buried between her knees. His gut clenches when he realizes why Finn looked guilty. He heads over to where Rachel is and sits down next to her.

“Rachel?” He says softly. He hears her sniffle. “Are you okay?”

She looks up and he can see the tears in her eyes. He wants to hold her in his arms but doesn’t.

“I’m fine, Noah. It’s stupid.” She uses her hands to wipe the tears away. She lies down on the blanket. He decides to lie down next to her. They’re quiet for a moment and then she speaks. “I don’t know why I thought it would be okay to try and steal someone’s boyfriend when he can’t even admit he likes me.”

“Finn’s stupid.”

She turns her body to face him. “I guess you’re lucky he’s stupid. He doesn’t notice how you look at Quinn.”

It surprises him that she noticed that. Back in seventh grade, Quinn was new and pretty and not Rachel. So he paid attention to her; he needed a distraction. When they got older, there was a certain appeal to her. Probably the Chastity Queen title; it sounded like a challenge. But then he remembers what she said in the hallway earlier and remembers that Quinn is mean almost all the time. He doesn’t really want to be with someone like that because he already has his mom bitching at him. Santana’s a different story because they’re not really together and whenever she starts yelling at him, that’s usually when he leaves.

He turns his body as well, notices that they’re a bit closer now. “Don’t know what I saw in her. She’s a bitch.”

She makes a noise that sounds like she agrees. They’re quiet for a few more minutes, content to just lie there together, when he notices a tear begin to fall down her cheek. “Is it really that hard for anyone to like me?”

His hand reaches up to brush away the tear, his thumb lingering on her cheek. “I kinda like you.”

She gives him a little smile. It looks sad. “I kinda like you too.”

Their bodies get closer together and he moves his hand from her cheek to run through her hair. He’s always liked the softness of her hair. He then places his hand at the back of her head to bring it closer and they kiss. The kiss is soft at first but like always, it quickly grows heated.

The only thing different about this kiss from their other kisses? The other kisses always happened when there was someone or something to stop them from running through the bases. That time when Rachel started grinding on him in his bedroom? His sister Hannah forgot something at the studio and needed either Rachel or Puck to drive her. That really hot encounter in the closet where he got to finger her? A JCC staff member was gathering all the teens up for another dumb icebreaker. But this time? There’s no one there to stop them.

So they don’t.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's my version of "Acafellas."

He should really be paying attention to what Finn is saying. But for the life of him, he can’t concentrate. He hasn’t been able to really concentrate on anything after what happened yesterday.

Yesterday, when he totally plucked the Berry Cherry.

Like, he always thought it’d be him in the end but it’s still surprising to him that it happened. And he didn’t even plan for it to happen. They were making out, which is an activity that he’s always down for, and it got heated enough that he ended up going down on her. It was as amazing as he thought it’d be and he’d be fine if that was all they did that day. But then, she dug through his wallet and handed him the condom. He was a goner after that. He knew it was her first time, so he did everything he could to make it special even if going slow had almost killed him. He’s pretty sure that him plus the auditorium didn’t exactly equal ideal first time in her mind.

He remembered walking Rachel to her car afterwards where she got all shy (he finds it adorable that she was still shy after everything they just did), kissed him on the cheek, and thanked him. He should be thanking her, really, for the super naughty fantasies he now has. Seriously, he had to rub a few out last night and one or two this morning.If he closed his eyes right now, he could easily conjure up the memory of her breathing out his name when she came. (Totally pegged her as a screamer, but apparently he guessed wrong.)

“Dude, are you listening?”

He turns his head to see Finn staring at him.

“Sorry, man. I’m kinda out of it today.” He gestures vaguely with his hand.

Finn has a look of pity on his face. “Oh, because of Santana?”

Oh yeah, when he walked into school today, Santana came up to him, screaming about his shitty credit score (is that really important for someone who’s still in high school?), and dumped his ass. They weren’t really dating to begin with and the only thing it meant was that she was no longer his regular booty call. He’d been getting offers all day from some of the other Cheerios so it’s not like he’s desperate for pussy.

“Fuck no!” He can’t exactly tell Finn who’s really on his mind at the moment. “What were you talking about earlier?”

“Quinn came by yesterday.”

He can vaguely remember Quinn coming by his house yesterday with some wine coolers. (The post-sex haze he was in yesterday went on for a weirdly long amount of time.) He can also remember telling her that Finn’s house was on the next street over and slamming the door in her face.

“What’s weird about that? She’s your girlfriend.”

“But she was all—usually I’m the one who wants to do stuff, you know, besides kissing—but she was all over me!”

“And?” He doesn’t understand how Finn thinks this is a problem. “Most dudes wouldn’t be complaining about their girl giving them the green light.”

“Well I…” Finn mumbles something and Puck can’t hear what it is.

“Spit it out.”

Finn sighs. “I told her I kissed Rachel.”

“Oh.” Puck’s fists clench. He suspected Finn kissed her yesterday but it’s different to hear it confirmed. He punches Finn’s arm. “What the fuck?! I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to tell your girlfriend you kissed another girl unless you’re okay with her being super pissed at you.”

“I don’t know! I was just being honest. But like, I explained to Quinn I immediately stopped it and that I feel nothing for Rachel. She was quiet for a while and we started kissing again and then well…” Finn shuffles his feet, embarrassed.

Puck knows what the problem is this time. “Mailman?”

Finn sighs. “Mailman. But it was too late so we just watched this movie she brought over. It’s called _Pleasantville_ and—”

Puck tunes Finn out. Puck totally understands Finn’s issue. After all, yesterday when he first entered Rachel, he had to start thinking of the mailman as well. Only, he didn’t need to watch a movie afterwards.

He smirks. What a stud.

* * *

 

“There’s something different about you.”

She whirls around to face Kurt. Classes are over for the day and the only thing left she has is Glee before she can go home. Kurt gets closer to examine Rachel.

“Your clothes haven’t changed, unfortunately. Neither has your hair.” He circles around her. She grips her books tighter to her chest. He suddenly stops and whispers, “Do you know the next song we’re singing in Glee? And do you have a solo?”

“No, Kurt. Mr. Schuester has been rather tight-lipped over what songs we’re going to sing ever since the assembly.”

“Hmm. Well, I’ll eventually find out whatever it is that is making you seem different,” he waves his hand in the general vicinity of her. “See you in Glee.” He turns away from her and strides to his locker at the other end of the hallway. She can see Mercedes glaring at her but she can’t understand why.

As she puts her things away in her locker, she lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. There’s no way Kurt can sense that she lost her virginity.

To Noah Puckerman.

On the stage in the auditorium.

It’s like he can sense when someone’s thinking about him, because when she closes her locker, Puck is casually leaning on the locker next to hers.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

They’re the only ones left on this side of the hallway and they can’t even look at each other.

He clears his throat. “Um, are you okay?” They finally make eye contact and he must understand the look of confusion on her face because he clarifies, “because I heard sometimes it hurts the next day for girls who aren’t virgins anymore. And I just wanted to make sure you were okay and everything.” She can tell he’s trying to say this in a manner that will make others think he doesn’t really care what her answer is.

“I’m fine. I have an intensive dance regimen and um,” she murmurs, “it’s… I’m fine, Noah, really.”

“Oh. Cool.” He leans closer and places his hand on her hip. “Listen, I know it wasn’t how you fucking planned to lose your V-card, like I know you want the whole candlelight and rose petal shit, and I totally understand if—“

She knows what he’s trying to say and she cuts him off by placing her hand over his mouth. She slowly takes her hand away and rests it on his bicep.

“You are correct that this wasn’t the way I planned to lose my virginity. There were no plans to lose it on the stage, even if it is where I do my best work.” She can see a smile slowly appearing on his face. “And if anything, this experience will be a great reference if I ever get a chance to audition for the role of Wendla in _Spring Awakening_.” She’s going to go off on a tangent at this point. “Basically, what I’m saying is that, though it was unplanned, I don’t regret having sex with you.”

She can feel tension leaving his body. He must’ve been really worried that she regretted what they did. But how could she?

“Really?”

“Yes. It was wonderful. You were very sweet.” And he was. Before he entered her, he interlaced his right hand with her left and when they had to pause because of the pain, he peppered kisses all over her face, mumbling things like how she felt “so good.” Everything happened at a pace that was comfortable for her. And the way he held her and revered her body, she had never before felt so precious.

“You know, girls usually don’t call me sweet, especially if it’s about sex,” he teases. Oh, she definitely knows what girls say about him. It’s hard not to hear the stories when there’s always some girl talking about sleeping with him whenever she goes to use the bathroom.

She playfully nudges his shoulder. “Guess that makes me special.”

“Guess it does.” There’s nothing teasing about his tone as he says this. She tries to ignore the fluttering in her stomach.

“There is one thing I regret though.” His brows furrow and she fights the urge to smooth it out with her fingers. “I helped you cheat on Santana. I was already worried about being the ‘other woman’ in Finn and Quinn’s relationship and now I’m the ‘other woman’ in your relationship with Santana. Even though I think Santana is an awful, awful person, she doesn’t deserve—“

This time he shuts her up by putting his hand on her mouth. He chuckles and takes it away, placing it back on her hip, brings her even closer. “Way to be dramatic, Berry. She’s not my girlfriend. I’m just her first call when she wants dick and we’re not exclusive so you don’t have to worry about being the ‘other woman.’ And she dumped me today anyway. Something about my credit score.”

“Oh. Even though it wasn’t a relationship like I imagined, I’m still sorry, Noah.”

He shrugs. “It’s alright. I was too busy thinking about something else when she was yelling at me.” He grins in a way that lets her know he’s going to say something that will embarrass her. “Like how you weren’t screaming my name yesterday.”

She blushes. “We were in a public place. I don’t think it would have been appropriate if I did anything that drew attention to what we were doing.”

He’s using his finger to trace random patterns on her hip. He drawls, “Bet I could make you scream next time.”

Oh.

Oh no.

“There’s not going to be a next time, Noah.” She takes a tiny step away from him. She almost wants to laugh at how sad he looks at her statement, if there wasn’t a part of her, the less rational part, that is sad as well. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

He protests, “But we’re good together.”

“Well, yes, we are good together.” She knows that. Yesterday, there was something comforting about him, hips pressed against hers, being so close that she could just breathe him in. “And, looking at our history, it’s quite obvious that we’re attracted to each other, physically. It’s just… adding sex always complicates things.” And it will. No matter how much she wants a repeat of what happened yesterday, someone always develops feelings in these arrangements. Knowing her luck, it’ll be her. She can’t have her heart broken by this boy. Again. “While I will always treasure what happened yesterday, I want our friendship more. We just started being friends again. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”

_I don’t want to lose you_.

He looks at her and she feels like he knows what she’s not saying. Maybe he feels the same way, too. He’s quiet for a long time before he finally speaks.

“Okay,” he softly says. He leans in and kisses her forehead. It’s sad and sweet all at once. They’re quiet for a few moments, before he smirks. “I guess I’ll just have to imagine you screaming my name in my dreams. I already had a few last night.” He suggestively waggles his eyebrows.

She shoves him away, smiling. “Noah!”

He lets out an obnoxious groan. “Oh, baby, say that again.”

“Stop.” She slaps his arm; they’re both laughing. It’s strange that they can actually joke about this, but it weirdly works for them. She’s always felt that the two of them operated on the same wavelength, different from everyone else. “I have to go to Glee.”

“Okay. I need to go pick up Hannah from school anyway.”

“Say hi to her for me.” He nods and he’s almost out of earshot when she says, “You should join Glee.”

He snorts, “Not a chance, Berry.”

“You sing all the time at home,” she points out. “What’s the difference between singing there and here?”

He looks like he’s about to give an answer but he just shakes his head and begins to head out. “Have fun with the Sanderson Sisters.” She’s learned that’s his nickname for the trio that is Quinn, Santana, and Brittany.

As she walks to Glee, she has the strange feeling that the beginning of something amazing has been snuffed out.

* * *

 

She can’t believe she let the Cheerios talk her into this. Dakota Stanley must be related to Coach Sylvester because the way he’s torturing these students looks eerily similar. The Glee club is currently at Carmel High’s dance practice. She doesn’t see their male lead or their new coach anywhere, which is strange, but she’s transfixed by the choreography being performed by Vocal Adrenaline. They are show choir perfection.

“That’s who we need to lead Glee to victory.” Quinn says at the front of their group, Santana and Brittany flanked by her side as usual.

“But we don’t even have enough people to compete,” Rachel retorts. They need at least three more members and no one has decided to join since their assembly performance. Even though she agrees with the Cheerios that Mr. Schuester isn’t an adequate dance instructor, having good dance moves is useless if there’s no event for them to showcase it.

Quinn just waves her hand, as if the problem will just go away. Vocal Adrenalines finishes their performance and nearly every member is on the ground, panting. “Let’s go.” Quinn leads the group to where Dakota Stanley is standing. “We’d like you to choreograph a routine for us. We’re also a show choir.”

“$8,000. Plus a $10,000 bonus if you place at Nationals.” He doesn’t even look at them, too busy eyeing the students who are still recovering on the stage.

Quinn nods, like he’s just quoted them an entirely reasonable amount of money to choreograph just one routine. Rachel guesses that with the Cheerios budget being as large as it is, it probably is reasonable to them. “Of course. We’ll contact you once we get the money.” Quinn then leads them all back into the hallway.

“W-where a-are we g-going to g-get a-all t-that money?” Tina says the questions that’s probably in every mind of the original Gleeks.

“Car wash,” Santana says, like it’s an obvious choice. “The Cheerios will help.” Well, at least they’ll have some customers from all the people who will want to ogle the cheerleaders in skimpy uniforms. No one would’ve come if they knew it was to support Glee.

The door to the auditorium bursts open. Two members of Vocal Adrenaline each scramble towards a trash can and vomit. Everyone looks on in disgust and horror.

One of the girls looks at them, says, “He’s a monster,” and promptly goes back to throwing up into the trash can. They all begin to head out, the warning stuck in their head.

Rachel whispers, “That was Andrea Cohen. She’s the female lead and she won the award for Outstanding Soloist last year.” The cheerleaders don’t particularly care about that information but the original Glee club members look at Rachel with understanding. If they get Dakota Stanley, even the fact that Andrea looks like she won’t be well enough to sing like she usually does, it won’t be enough for them win competitions.

They pass the restrooms and Rachel is suddenly overcome with the feeling of nausea. “Excuse me,” she squeaks out before rushing inside. She manages to make it to a toilet before she starts throwing up.

“Rachel, are you okay?” She hears Artie ask from outside the bathroom.

She wipes her mouth, flushes the toilet, and cleans up in the sink. “I’m fine. I probably got sick after watching them vomit. You guys can leave first. I know how to get back to Lima.” No one had wanted to sit with her on the drive here anyway.

“Okay.” She hears them leave. She thinks she hears Tina telling her to get better soon.

She stares at her reflection in the mirror, noting her face looks a bit paler than usual. She’s been feeling really tired lately. It’s been a stressful week, with Mr. Schuester spending more and more time with his acapella group and dealing with Mercedes, who thinks she’s trying to steal Kurt away from her. Isn’t it obvious that Kurt is gay? Nevertheless, she’ll relax over the weekend and hopefully whatever this is will pass. She’ll pop a few more vitamins and this little bug will go away. She can’t afford to get sick with competition looming around the corner. 

* * *

 

“So that was kinda cool. Meeting Josh Groban. I mean the not-cool part was probably because he was mainly here to give that restraining order to Mr. Ryerson. ”

Puck nods his head as he and Finn leave the dressing room to head to the lobby of the auditorium. Puck’s still reeling from the performance high. “I think he’s here cruising for cougars too.” He recognized the look on Groban’s face.

Finn laughs, “Like you?”

“Sure.” That was the excuse Puck gave Tanaka for wanting to join Acafellas. He mentioned being done with high school girls and that he was looking for some new cougars to hit on. The weather was changing and his pool clients probably wouldn’t be calling for him any time soon if they didn’t want to look suspicious. But a tiny part of him, ever since Rachel mentioned joining Glee club, has been thinking about what it’d be like to sing on stage in front of an audience. He normally sings by himself or for his family. And for Rachel, once, when they were younger.

They make it to the lobby and it’s packed with parents and teachers. It’s definitely not a scene he’d voluntarily be at.

“Oh,” Finn suddenly stops, a smile appearing on his face, “there’s Rachel. I didn’t know she’d be here. I thought she’d be kinda pissed at me and Mr. Schue, since we’re like, not focusing on Glee.”

Puck looks to see where Rachel is. He’s not as tall as Finn and Rachel’s tiny. She’s looking around the lobby as if she’s searching for someone. “I asked her to come.” Rachel suddenly turns to where they are and smiles. She begins heading over to them.

“What? Why?”

Puck shrugs. “She’s cool.” He’s not going to explain himself to Finn. He knows Finn won’t drop it though so he’s saved from Finn’s questions when Rachel makes it to where they are.

“Noah, Finn, you guys sounded wonderful! While I do think Mr. Schuester should be focusing more on Glee, I now understand why he was working so hard with Acafellas. Who knew Coach Tanaka could sing like that?” Out of the corner of his eye, Puck can see Finn look confused when Rachel called Puck by his first name. He sees Finn looking at the two of them like he’s struggling to fit two pieces of a puzzle together. Good luck to him.

He throws his arm around Rachel’s shoulder, pulling her close. “Berry, what’d you think of my dance moves?” Puck’s lecherous grin grows wider when he sees Rachel blush. He had been able to see where she was sitting from where he was on the stage and had pointed at her during his solo. (Seriously, who the fuck thinks singing _I Wanna Sex You Up_ at a PTA meeting is a good idea? Maybe Schue’s wife’s pregnancy hormones haven’t kicked in yet. She’s here somewhere.) Unfortunately, Coach Sylvester had been sitting in front of her and thought he was pointing at her. He should probably leave before Coach Sylvester decides to come over.

She’s quiet but he can still hear her, “Though the moves were quite inappropriate, I suppose they were appropriate for the song.” She wrinkles her nose like she doesn’t approve of the song choice. Like she should be talking, Miss “I’m gonna simulate sex to a hip hop song for a high school assembly filled with horny students.”

“We did some pretty inappropriate things on this stage last week,” he whispers to her. Her blush intensifies, but now there’s a little smile on her face. He’s probably smiling a bit, too, at the memory. That memory is first in his spank bank rotation. In second? Her and those knee pads from the _Push It_ performance.

Finn clears his throat. Puck and Rachel both look at Finn. He’s still here? They were speaking quietly enough that Finn probably didn’t hear what they were saying. Finn’s looking at them suspiciously but Puck guesses that Finn decided it was too much trouble to understand what he’s seeing since Finn’s face quickly changes to a happy expression.

“Rachel, it’s so cool for you to come here to support me and Mr. Schue.” Finn has his dopey smile on his face. Do girls (and Hummel) actually fall for that?

“Actually,” he can tell Rachel is trying to be nice. She shouldn’t have to be, after what Finn did to her, judging her for telling Mr. Schuester that he hasn’t been a great club director lately. He knows what’s been happening in Glee since she’s been blasting him with long-ass texts, ranting about the teacher and the male lead who don’t care about the club as much as she does. He’s always hesitant to point out that no one cares about Glee as much as she does. “I came because Noah asked me to come.” Before Finn can reply, she turns to Puck, “Noah, can you drive me home later? I had Daddy drop me off before his shift at the hospital.”

“Sure, I was just about to leave anyway.” He nods at Finn, “Later, Hudson.”

“Bye, Finn.”

They both leave Finn there, staring at them wordlessly as they leave. They walk in comfortable silence to Puck’s truck, where he helps Rachel get in, after laughing at her struggle. It isn’t until they’re almost to her house that he realizes she isn’t as chatty as she usually is.

He briefly glances at her and notices that she looks a bit sick. Her eyes are closed and she’s taking deep breaths but he knows she’s not asleep.

“Hey, you okay?” He nudges her with his hand. 

“Hmmm?” She opens her eyes and tilts her head to look at him. “I’m fine. I’ve just been feeling a little under the weather lately.”

“You’re not gonna blow chunks in my car, are you? Because sick or not, I’ll make you clean it up.” She laughs at this but he’s serious. He’s concerned, though, because for as long as he’s known Rachel, he’s never really known her to get sick. It’s usually him. And he’s a horrible patient. Ask Rachel.

“I think I’ve vomited everything I can.” He makes a disgusted face. “It’s probably food poisoning. I forgot my lunch one day and had to get a salad from the cafeteria. The greens didn’t look very good.” She changes the topic, “Anyway, you really should consider joining Glee. Ever since the Cheerios joined, there are more girls than guys and we need 12 people to compete. We could use your voice, Noah, it’s lovely.” There’s a faint blush on her cheeks, but she quickly turns away to look out the window. In a much softer tone, she says, “I’ve always thought so.”

He looks back over at Rachel, whose eyes are closed once more, humming softly to whatever song is playing on the radio and bopping her head to the music. He remembers when he sang to Rachel when they were little, and the look she had in her eyes after it was over. He wouldn’t mind seeing that again. He thought he saw it earlier when he was singing, but he didn’t know for sure because of the lights from the stage.

“Maybe.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is this story's version of "Preggers."

Pregnant.

She, Rachel Barbra Berry, has become a high school statistic. And not even the kind she wants. You know, the I-made-it-big-and-I'm-from-a-small-town statistic. She tries to make sense of everything that's going through her head and she fights back the tears as she can feel the control she has over her life slip every second.

Yesterday, she had stopped at the drug store to pick up some more tea as the flu bug (it had gone on for far too long to still be food poisoning) still wasn't going away. It was when she passed by the pregnancy tests that she paused. She didn't know what compelled her to grab one but the next thing she knew she was in her room holding a positive pregnancy test. After the adequate amount of time spent in shock had passed, she began making plans. She had to, in order to keep her sanity in check. She went through her options.

First option, abortion. She's 16. She's not ready to take care of a child. And based on that depressing show on MTV, _16 and Pregnant_ , she'll probably have to kiss Broadway goodbye if she keeps the baby. She does want a family, but not right now when she should be worrying about what classes to take for the next two years of high school. Her mind set on abortion, she grabbed her laptop to look for clinics but paused when she saw the photo she used as her desktop background.

It's a photo of her and her dads. It was taken during one of their monthly musical nights. (She never understood why they had these monthly family gatherings —even though she loved them—when she knew other families didn't really have them. The closest she can think of is Noah and his family's tradition of eating Chinese food and watching really depressing WWII movies.) Some times they wouldn't watch a musical and they would just spend time talking to each other. And she can remember her dads telling her how difficult it was to find an agency who were willing to let a gay couple adopt a child, how they were so happy to find a woman who was willing to be their surrogate, and how many tears they shed when they first got to hold her.

Abortion was now shoved off the table and she began considering adoption. She can give up nine months of her life if it means another family will receive happiness that will last a lifetime. She started searching for adoption agencies when she glanced over at her desk and her eyes were drawn to a cup with a star on it. She doesn't really use it for drinking and it's just been sitting there, collecting dust. Moments flash through her mind:

A woman who looked so much like her.

A picture of her as a baby in the woman's arms.

Her being handed the cup by the woman.

And the words that still ring in her ears, "I can't do this."

She shut her laptop, put it away, and she lay back down on her bed. Adoption was off the table, too. She doesn't want to be like that woman. She curled up on her side, her arms wrapping around her stomach. She was going to love this baby, more than what that woman could ever be capable of with her. She ignored the part of her that started asking about Noah (because she honestly doesn't have a clue what to say to him), just lay in bed some more, now armed with the knowledge that she was going to be teen mother, and laid there until her fathers called her down for dinner. She couldn't concentrate the rest of the evening and forgot to do the reading that she knew her English teacher would have a pop-quiz on.

And now, more than 12 hours later, she's vomiting in a toilet at school and she still doesn't know what to tell Noah. She hasn't even seen him today. Oh, but she did see Mr. Schuester. He had stopped her in the hallway to tell her that the female lead for _Don't Stop Believin'_ was going to Quinn. She was too shocked to say anything before he left. She thinks it's punishment for her behavior during the whole Acafellas phase he went through, even though she had already apologized with her world famous sugar cookies.

She's pregnant, her car didn't start this morning so she asked her daddy for a ride, she's fairly certain she did poorly on her pop-quiz, and she's not even going to have a major role in the single club she cares for. Glee was the last place in her life where she felt she still had some control and now that's gone too. The tears fall in earnest and she can't even bring herself to stop them.

"Manhands? Are you in here?"

She freezes.

"Quinn?"

"You left your stuff in the classroom when you rushed out of there. Mrs. Brown asked me to bring it over." Quinn scoffs, like it's just a huge inconvenience for her. "I'm leaving it by your stall."

"Oh. Thank you, I guess." She can hear Quinn stop in front of her stall and it's then that she realizes in her haste to get to the toilet, she forgot to close the stall door. Quinn stares at her. She realizes she must look awful, tears streaming down her face and kneeling in front of the toilet, while Quinn looks like the impeccable and flawless cheerleader she always is. But surprisingly Quinn is unfazed by her appearance. She just grabs some toilet paper, hands it to her, and hesitantly pats her on the back.

"Are you okay?" Quinn's voice is soft, it's unlike anything she's ever heard from the cheerleader before.

"Just a flu bug. It'll pass." In nine months. She uses the toilet paper that Quinn offered to clean up the best she can.

"Do you need help going to the nurse?"

Rachel feels like she's stepped into the twilight zone, because what else can explain why Quinn is being so nice to her when just this morning the blonde cheerleader was glaring daggers at her. "I'm fine. Thank you, Quinn."

Quinn nods her head and straightens herself into the posture she uses to show that she's the head cheerleader. She leaves. But before she does, she says, "Coach Sylvester has the nurse stock prescription drugs for the cheerleaders. If you need some, just tell the nurse that Coach sent you. She won't ask any questions and give you some." She's out in the hallway before Rachel can voice her thanks.

Quinn doesn't know it, but this little act of kindness is the brightest part of Rachel's day.

* * *

 

"Can you go over the steps with me again?"

Puck narrows his eyes at Finn. "Go ask Hummel. You're the one that got him the spot on the team." It's already bad enough that the team has to dance to _Single Ladies_ every time Hummel gets to kick a field goal, but he's not gonna practice the dance more than he has to. Finn's been getting more shit for being in Glee and now that Hummel's on the team, it's only going to get worse.

"Dude, come on," Finn nudges him.

"Fine," Puck sighs. He starts going through the moves, hoping that Finn can follow but dude can't dance for shit. They're chilling by Finn's locker before Glee starts in 15 minutes. Today's going to be his first day and he can't wait to see Rachel's face when Schue announces that he, Mike, and Matt have joined, making the club eligible for competitions.

He had a really weird dream about her last night. They're usually sex dreams but in last night's dream, she came into his room through his window and wore a white nightgown. She lay down next to him on his bed, grabbed his hand, and laid it on her stomach. He was super confused at that. And when he woke up, he was late for school so he didn't get the chance to tell Rachel to come over to his house after Glee. She's still feeling sick so he figured he could whip up a batch of his Nana Connie's chicken noodle soup; it fixes everything. She'll bitch about having to eat chicken but at least she'll feel better.

They're still practicing the dance when Quinn marches up to Finn. She's got her queen bitch face on so he knows Finn's gonna get yelled at for something and he should probably leave before Quinn finds some random reason to yell at him too.

"Did you sleep with Rachel?"

What?

"Wha-what are you talking about?" Finn stumbles. He's just as shocked as Puck is that Quinn just asked him that.

"Did you sleep with Rachel?" Quinn slowly asks the question this time but if anything, she's even angrier.

"No! Why would you think that?"

Quinn doesn't say anything. She looks like she wants to slap Finn. She stares at Finn for a little bit longer, like she's contemplating on whether she actually should smack him. And then suddenly, she smiles weakly, "I just…" she wraps her arms around herself. "It still hurts me that you kissed her. That you cheated me." Finn goes to hug her, whispering reassurances that Quinn's the one he loves.

But Puck isn't buying Quinn's excuse. She clearly knows something and Finn didn't pick up on it. When Finn leaves to go to Glee first, he bluntly asks, "So what was that about?"

Quinn glances back at Finn, makes sure he's out of earshot before replying, "Rachel hasn't been feeling well lately."

He nods. He knows that. "Yeah. So?" He doesn't know how Rachel being sick would make Quinn think that Finn slept with her.

"Rachel never gets sick. But she's been like this for the past two weeks. At first, I thought it might have been the flu so I stayed away. Coach Sylvester won't stand for any of her Cheerios being sick." Puck keeps nodding because everything makes sense so far. "I saw her in the bathroom earlier after she ran out of class to give her back her bag. If she was just throwing up, I would have left immediately but she was crying."

Crying? Is Rachel in a lot of pain? Maybe he should've brought her to the hospital since she's obviously hiding her sickness from her doctor dad.

Quinn continues, "I left after she said she didn't need to see the nurse. And on the way here, for some strange reason, I figured maybe she's pregnant. I would cry if I got pregnant in high school."

Pregnant. The word rings in Puck's head and it's hard for him to pay attention to what Quinn says next.

"But then I thought, who would sleep with Manhands?"

He would.

And he did.

"It was stupid to ask Finn but I had to be sure."

"Considering your boy's little problem, there's no way he could have knocked her up." Puck doesn't even know how he managed to get that sentence out because he's still focused on the fact that Rachel might be pregnant.

"Right," Quinn grimaces as she remembers her boyfriend's issue of arriving early. "I'll see you later, Puck." She heads off in the direction that Finn went.

"See ya."

Puck manages to not freak the fuck out. But he still has to sit down on the floor for a few minutes and take a few deep breaths.

Rachel might be pregnant with his kid.

Fuck.

He doesn't think his Nana Connie's chicken noodle soup can fix this.

* * *

"Streisand, I think the answer's really obvious."

Rachel doesn't know what to say. She just wanted to get to Glee and then go home to make more plans in regards to her pregnancy (like how to tell the baby daddy). She's already made a doctor's appointment to confirm the pregnancy (though she thinks maybe she shouldn't make any plans until she hears the doctor actually tell her she's pregnant). But now she's being offered the lead in the new school musical by Coach Sylvester and Mr. Ryerson.

"I'm sorry, Coach Sylvester, but like I said before, I'll need time to consider your offer." A part of her wants to take them up on her offer but honestly, she doesn't think she can handle anything else right now.

Coach Sylvester looks at Rachel like she doesn't think she was being clear enough and brings her megaphone to her mouth to repeat her offer. Thankfully, Mr. Ryerson takes the cheerleading coach away before she damages everyone's eardrums. Rachel heads to Glee and realizes that aside from Mr. Schuester, she's the last one to arrive. She sits down in the front row away from everyone else. Everyone's paired up and she's always left out. She ignores Quinn's staring and tries to focus on the sheet music in her hands. She has to learn the background parts now.

"Okay, everyone, listen up," Mr. Schuester claps his hands to bring everyone to attention as he walks into the choir room. Behind him are Puck, Mike, and Matt. "Let's welcome these guys to Glee club." The Gleeks are silent as now they are outnumbered by the jocks and the cheerleaders whereas Finn and the cheerleaders loudly greet the three coming in. Mike and Matt go to sit by Santana and Brittany and Puck sits down next to Rachel. He's got this little smile on his face and she realizes that she should probably say something.

"You're joining Glee?" She doesn't know why she whispers this.

Puck shrugs, "You made it look fun." He smirks and throws his arm around her shoulder, "Besides, you said you missed my sexy voice."

She laughs and shoves him. "I did not say that." He merely chuckles in response.

The rest of practice goes by in a blur and once they're all dismissed, she's gathering her things and getting ready to call one of her dads for a ride home.

"Didn't see your car in the lot this morning," Puck says, grabbing her bag and leading her out of the music room. She's vaguely aware that Kurt and Mercedes are staring at her and Puck leave. She and Puck don't have a lot of classes together so there haven't been any witnesses to the Puckerman & Berry friendship reunion. She's kind of glad that they don't call out to her right now but she has a feeling that they'll question her later.

"It didn't start so I had Daddy drive me. I just have to call him or Dad to pick me up."

"I can drop you off," he offers. "I need you to stop by my house first though."

Once she's in his truck, she asks, "Why do we need to stop by your house?"

"You're still sick, right?"

Rachel pauses before replying, "Yes."

"Figured I can make you some chicken noodle soup to like speed up your recovery and shit," Puck shrugs his shoulder like it's no big deal.

"Oh…um," Rachel scrambles for a response. "You don't have to do that. Dad made me some soup yesterday that I can heat up," she lies. Now that she knows she has morning sickness, she doesn't know how much the chicken noodle soup is going to help her when she keeps throwing up anything she eats.

"Oh. Okay."

The rest of the ride is silent, but it's uncomfortable for once. She figures now would probably be good time to bring up the baby that's growing in her belly but she's stalling. It's not really a conversation she's looking forward to so she just stares out the window and begins formulating conversation starters appropriate enough to for this situation. Not surprisingly, she can't think of any.

He pulls onto her driveway a few minutes later. "Thanks for the ride, Noah," she places her hand on the door handle, ready to leave when Puck's hand on her shoulder stops her. She turns back to face him but he doesn't say anything. If he's looking to come inside her house, he doesn't have to ask since he's—

"Are you pregnant?"

Rachel's mouth drops open. "H-how…"

"Quinn saw you upchuck. Came over to accuse Finn of knocking you up. 'Course I knew it wasn't him," his voice progressively gets softer and she struggles a bit to hear what he's saying. Though, she definitely hears what he asks next, "Are ya?"

She's quiet but she reaches out to take one of his hands in one of her own. She can't look him in the eye so she just stares at their hands. His thumb begins to rub circles on the back of her hand, like he's trying to soothe her. Finally she softly says, "Yes. I mean…I think I am. I just took the test yesterday and it came out positive."

"What do you mean 'you think?' Did you pee on the stick wrong?"

She looks up to glare at him. "I did _not_ pee on it wrong. I don't even think it's possible that you can even do it wrong, Noah." But she can tell by the look in his eyes that he's trying to inject humor in this very serious situation they've found themselves in.

"We used a condom," he points out.

She nods. "And I'm on the pill." She's been going over the probabilities of her getting pregnant despite the preventive measures they've taken. "There's still a one or two percent chance that they won't work."

He gives her a humorless chuckle, "Lucky us." They're silent once more. She's sure that now it's Puck's turn to be in shock.

"I made a doctor's appointment. Just to be sure. There's a possibility I used a faulty product."

"I'm gonna go with you," he states immediately. She's never seen him look so serious. All she can do is nod. A part of her is happy she won't be in that doctor's office alone.

"It's on Saturday at 10."

"I'll swing by and pick you up."

"Okay." Now she leaves the truck and heads into her house. Once she's in her room, she throws herself into completing her homework.

She tries to ignore the fact that Puck doesn't leave her driveway until an hour later.

* * *

They actually win so maybe it's not so bad that Hummel is on the team. The other team was definitely shocked at their dance moves and he'll admit that it was kinda fun dancing to Beyoncé. Now though, as he's getting ready to head back home and he sees all the other players celebrating with their families—or in Finn's case, as he sucks face with Quinn—he kind of wishes he had someone to celebrate with too. Don't get him wrong. He knows how hard his mom works and yeah, sometimes he's a shitty son and he's working really hard on being better, but he really wants his mom to come to one of his games one day. He doesn't trust a lot of people to watch over Hannah so he doesn't feel comfortable leaving her in the stands by herself. She usually has dance lessons on the nights he plays anyway.

"Noah!"

He turns around in time to catch his sister who leaps into his arms.

"Hannah? What are you doing here? You should be at Mrs. Rosenberg's house waiting for me to pick you up." He puts her down on the ground. He checks her scarf and makes sure she's bundled up. The weather has been getting cooler now and he doesn't want to deal with a sick kid. Hannah's just as bad as he is when she's sick.

"I brought her." Rachel comes to stand behind Hannah. A sly grin appears on her face. "I told her that the boys had to dance to _Single Ladies_ during the game and she didn't believe me."

The same grin appears on Hannah's face. "You should dance that for Ma when she gets home."

He groans. "Fuck no." There's no way he's doing that.

"Noah, language!" Rachel covers Hannah's ears. Like that's going to help; Hannah lives with him.

He glances at Rachel's face and he's glad that she can joke with him, judging by the smile on her face when she attempted to get on his case about his swearing. Things have been awkward since she dropped the "I might be pregnant" bomb. She said it was probably best if they didn't think about the possible baby in her belly until the appointment. She mumbled something about not getting their hopes up and spending too much time worrying about something that has a 50 percent chance of being true. And he understands where she's coming from because he remembers all the time he spent as a kid wishing for his dad to come back.

But it's hard for him not to think about it because every time he sees her, his eyes immediately drop down to her belly. And he starts imagining about what the baby will look like—because any combination of the two of them equals a fucking adorable baby—and whether it'll be a boy or a girl and all the things he wants to teach the kid. He really wants this kid and if Rachel's actually pregnant, he'll do everything he can to convince her to keep it. It's going to be hard but he really thinks it'll be worth it.

Rachel's hand drops down to her stomach, and it's only a second, but she lightly caresses the spot where their child could be. Their eyes meet and he knows that she's been thinking about this kid, too. He hopes they're thinking about the same thing.

She clears her throat and says, "Congratulations on your win." And now they're back to awkward.

"Thanks, Rach," he grins. He picks up Hannah and carries her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He can feel her tiny fists pounding into his back and hear her squeals to let her down.

"Well, you're probably going to take Hannah home so I should probably head back. I need to leave before Kurt comes over talking about how much I look like a candy cane." She tucks her hair behind her ear. "I'll see you tomorrow, Noah."

He nods. In less than 24 hours, they'll know for sure if Rachel's pregnant.

She says goodbye to Hannah and walks away. He starts walking over to his truck, Hannah still banging on his back. On the way there he spots a few of the other football players and sees them interacting with their families. His focus is drawn to one of the running backs with his dad. They all rag on the guy because his dad cheers the loudest and sometimes says some embarrassing shit at the player-parent meetings. But something in his chest aches the longer he looks at the running back with his dad and he glances back one last time to look at Rachel. He imagines what it'd be like to have her in the stands cheering for him again—she was the first and only person he noticed when he looked out into the stands at the beginning of the game. Only this time, he imagines her with a baby in her arms in matching outfits. Their baby.

He's never wanted anything more.

* * *

They're both lying on Rachel's bed, side-to-side. They haven't said much to each other since leaving the doctor's office. But they know now, for sure, that Rachel's pregnant. Dr. Stevenson won't say anything to their parents. Thank fuck for doctor-patient confidentiality.

He really wants Rachel to talk first because he really wants to ask if she meant what she said earlier in the office. Dr. Stevenson had had been telling them about their options and Rachel vehemently said that she was keeping the baby. On the inside, he was definitely leaping for joy at her declaration. On the outside, he hadn't really said anything. Maybe that's why Rachel wasn't saying anything right now. Maybe she doesn't think he wants the baby.

He hears her sniffle and looks over to see tears streaming down her face. He immediately leans over to brush them away and softly says, "It'll be okay, Rachel."

"You must be mad at me for wanting this baby," she manages to say through her tears.

"What?" She really _does_ think he doesn't want this kid. Time to set her straight. "I'm not mad. I'm ha—Rachel," he softly nudges her chin so she'll look at him. Once he has her attention, he continues, "I want this kid too. Actually a part of me is surprised you're keeping this kid." It's a shitty thing to say but most of his plans so far revolved around getting Rachel to not consider abortion. He hasn't really thought about what he would do if she wanted the kid too. "Because…you know, Broadway."

She's stopped crying now, but every so often she'll sniffle and a tear leaks out. "I know it's going to be hard. But Broadway was already going to be hard. This," she puts a hand on her stomach, "only means Broadway will be harder and well, I'm always up for a challenge." They both manage to let out a tiny chuckle at that. They've got a lot of memories of Rachel doing things the hard way if only because it made her stand out and she didn't believe she would learn anything if she did things the easy way.

"Okay. So we're keeping the baby," he says this quietly because honestly he doesn't think they can have this conversation in any other volume. "I'm all in." He hopes the look on his face is serious enough for Rachel to believe him. "Rachel, I'm not…" a lump forms in his throat and his mind conjures up an image of a much older man leaving without ever looking back, "I'm not _him_."

She reaches out to hold his hand and he lets her. "I know that, Noah. You'd never leave." Only he did. Kinda. "Even if you didn't want this baby, you would have supported me and stood by me. You already know what it's like for someone to leave," she kind of knows too but he's glad she doesn't say it. It gives him this tiny hope that a part of her knew he was always going to come back to her. "You wouldn't do that to your child. I was just afraid you were going to resent me for keeping the baby and now I know you don't."

He doesn't deserve her or her kindness but fuck he'd be really stupid to not take this chance to prove to her that he can be everything she believes him to be.

"And I know I said we should not be making any plans until we know for sure but I had a lot of free time and I couldn't help but come up with some plans on how to approach this pregnancy and what our lives will be like in the next few years."

He grins. Of course she planned. He wouldn't be surprised if all of her plans were in a binder with the pages in sheet protectors.

She's still babbling, "We don't have to be a couple since we're in the 21st century and that's not really necessary to raise a child. As long as the child has good parental figures, they'll turn out fine. We'll just be friends raising a child together and—"

He interrupts, "We're not friends, Rachel." Rachel frowns and tries to tug her hand out of his but he won't let her. He brings both of their hands to lay on Rachel's stomach, right over where their kid is. "I think we're more than that now."

They settle into comfortable silence. There's still a lot of things they have to talk about but that can wait. Right now, he just wants to spend some time with the mother of his child. He notices the position they're in and remembers that weird dream he had the day they first thought she was pregnant. He remembers all the times when they were little that Rachel mentioned she knew things because she was psychic. Maybe he's psychic as well from like osmosis or exposure to her psychicness.

Maybe, he thinks, if he dreams hard enough about Rachel and his kid, those dreams will come true too.


End file.
